After sixteen straight days of football we have a two-day break before the semifinals get underway. A chance perhaps to indulge in some observations?
In terms of entertainment and quality this edition of the European Championships far exceeds what was on show four years ago. It’s on par with 2000 but the latter stages of the tournament in Netherlands and Belgium had two fantastic extra time games and one that was not unlike the Spain and Italy (except this time Italy supposedly played with 11 men for the full 120 minutes) game yesterday. The last three games of Euro 2008 will decide where it will ultimately sit in the list of great tournaments.
And that partially segues to the fallout from the last quarterfinal match. Contrasting the column inches and tone of blog posts emanating from North America dedicated to Russia versus Netherlands against Italy versus Spain makes interesting reading and may give an indication of how far the game still has to go in these parts.
It seems to me that more effort has been dedicated to trashing the Italy - Spain game than celebrating and reveling in the quality of the play and the spectacle that was Russia versus the Netherlands.
There are far too many posters and writers overly concerned about the reaction from non-soccer fans and sportswriters in North America. It is if a multitude of North American soccer fans/bloggers/posters decided after yesterday’s game to strap on the cilices and whip themselves bloody before the soccer-haters of North America even had a chance to mobilize.
It is a reaction of a bullied child that would opt to inflict self administered pain rather than allowing the bully the pleasure. It is also the reaction that does nothing to grow the game in North America. It was a poor game yesterday - you get them from time to time and not only in soccer. That’s just the way it is and self-flagellation isn’t going to change anything.
Celebrate the great, praise the beautiful, rejoice that on occasion we get to enjoy 120 minutes of footballing heaven the likes of which we were privileged to see on Saturday. No one every grew anything worthwhile by wallowing in the negative and when you respond to soccer-haters gripes all you are doing at best is reinforcing the darkside. At worst it runs the risk of becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.
As group winners Portugal, Croatia and Netherlands fell at the first knockout stage you could hear a rising crescendo of “it’s not fair.” Perhaps it’s not fair, but there is nothing that grants a right to go on and win a tournament just because a team starts well.
Tournament play is about pacing, peaking at the right time and taking advantage of the breaks when they come your way. You don’t get bonus points for artistic impression, going unbeaten in the group stage or even qualifying after only two games.
You only have to glance at the history of major tournaments such as the World Cup and the European Championships to see how difficult it is to lead from start to finish (as it is in any competition in any sport). Now and again a country will come along and be able to pull off such a remarkable achievement.
Performances by the likes of Brazil in 1958 and 1970, and France in 1984 are extremely unusual and it is easier to find examples of teams burning intensely in the early stages but flaming out spectacularly while failing to reach their overall goal.
Hungary (1954), Netherlands (1974), Italy (1978), Denmark (1986), Spain multiple times, and the daddy of them all Brazil in 1982 played memorable football in the early going only to fail in the later stages.
Comment(s) of the Day “Previously, Daneiele de Rossi and Alessandro Di Natale had failed for Italy, while Daniel Guiza, of Italy, also had his effort saved.” –Kevin McCarra in the Guardian.
Now that I have seen that it can happen to the best I don’t feel so bad about Fernando Cannavaro!
It was later corrected to read - “Previously Daniele de Rossi and Alessandro Di Natale had failed for Italy, while Daniel Güiza, of Spain, also had his effort saved,” but as of this morning Antonio was still being referred to as Alessandro.
“European football has been at a crossroads for some time but the dull, negative style that won the championship for Greece four years ago – and let's be honest propelled Rangers to the UEFA Cup Final and to a lesser extent served Scotland well in their qualifying group – has been found wanting in the face of a new dawn.
Manchester United showed the way at club level by winning in Moscow and at least four of the quarter-finalists in the current tournament have also seen the light. If ever a tournament has rekindled our enthusiasm for the beautiful game and provided a hopeful vision of the future, this has been it. If we are honest, we must also admit that this vision has been helped by the fact that the home nations were not there to cloud the view.” – Pat Nevin in the Scotsman on Sunday.
Prediction Update With three games to go here is a list of the top fifteen. *Indicates no countries left.
Netherlands Antilles 0-1 Haiti Haiti wins 1-0 on aggregate.
Cuba 4-0 Antigua and Barbuda Cuba wins 8-3 on aggregate.
Guyana 1-2 Suriname Suriname wins 3-1 on aggregate.
Barbados 0-1 United States United States win 9-0 on aggregate.
Costa Rica 3-0 Grenada Costa Rica wins 5-2 on aggregate.
Mexico 7-0 Belize Mexico wins 9-0 on aggregate.
St. Lucia 1-3 Guatemala Guatemala wins 9-1 on aggregate.
Canada 4-1 St Vincent & Grenadines Canada wins 7-1 on aggregate.
You can find the make-up of the groups for the next stage by following the link.
It is poorly laid out but it is supposed to indicate three groups of four with the the top two moving onto a final group round. The top three will qualify and the fourth place side finisher will play-off against the fifth team from South America.
Yeah, I agree with gongatore. Brazil will probably qualify in the end. Though, they seem to be a weaker team ever since the world cup 2006, no offense on brazilian fans.
danielgregg, to answer your question from the previous entry, I'm 100% Argentinian, born and raised. And Argentina is the only NT I support, religously, obsessively.
Now, one of my grandparents and all of my great-grandparents came from elsewhere. So, I'm a mixture of Spanish, Italian, and a smidge German. Don't care much for any of those NTs though.
George Carlin was a god, I once saw him perform in person in Philly in the 80s. So sad to see him go.
Atleti, interesting background, thanks for the reply. I guess you heard that the Brazil fans at the Mineirao last week got up and applauded Messi and Argentina generally, while booing Dunga and his bunch of cloggers, right? They were shouting to Dunga "BURRO! BURRO! BURRO!" and "Adeus, Dunga!" over and over again. (That's "Goodbye, Dunga" to those of you not conversant in Portuguese).
Bobby: "Not if you are Brazilian!"
Exactly right. True, we've been here before, and we scraped thru qualification for the 2002 wc. But still...Dunga's team is just woeful. There were things I welcomed about Dunga (he doesn't bow down to the star players, he's willing to try out little known players, incl. some from clubs in Brazil) but his team makes the 1994-2002 teams look like the second coming of the 1970/1982 squads, they're so dreadful to watch. Dunga makes bright talents like Diego, Robinho and Kaka look ordinary.
Instead we get these giant cloggers like Gilberto (not Gilberto Silva) who's supposed to be a replacement for Roberto Carlos, ffs!! And he doesn't even use Pato, he just brings the kid along for decoration.
Bobby, something I've noticed about this tournament, don't recall if it's something unique or not: there've been so many records broken. Croatia broke some kind of record when they beat Germany, Turkey broke their record against the Czechs, the Dutch beat their 30-year record against Italy, Italy beat their 30-year record against France, and
Italy beat their 30-year record against France, and now Spain banished their longstanding record against not only Italy, but their June 22 jinx. You probably don't put too much store in these recoreds. I just think it's been interesting to see so many games one after another with pundits pointing out these records before almost every game, and then they go and promptly break them--so consistently.
I will agree that Toni didn't have a good tourney but he was put in terrible positions. Terrible service, nobody exploiting space behind him. Really very poor.
I was very disappointed with Toni because I loved watching him work with Ribery, Klose, and the rest of his wonderful Bayern teammates last season. Toni was fantastic, amazing skill on the ball, just brilliant to watch. He scored absolutely fantastic goals, and so many of them. Remember he didn't have a great tournament in 2006 either.
But these tournaments don't always tell you everything about a player. Remember Baros at Euro 2004? He was the Next Big Thing, every top club was in for him. He certainly didn't fulfill his promise. Then there's the fact that a player like Bouhlahrouz--BOULHAROUZ, ffs!!--had a terrific tournament before the Dutch went out. You remember him, right? The clogger from Chelsea they couldn't wait to get rid of?
Then there's poor Mario Gomez -- German footballer of the year for 2007, 19 goals in 25 appearances, scored 2 goals for his country in his first cap, often creates a goal out of nothing, led his club to the Bundesliga title two seasons ago. But he's had a horrid tournament.
Thanks Booby for my 2 minutes of Fame hopefully I'll be singing my favorite country song soon!
I hope one day the America's can combine to form a great tournament like EURO's. 8 groups, 5 or 6 teams per group,winner and second place team gets an invite. Every country between Chile and Canada would have a chance. I think it would be great fun for all soccer fans. A nightmare for police but still as we see on TV it could be great.
LHJS, not dissing your idea but that would mean combining two separate FIFA regions--CONCACAF and CONMEBOL--for one trophy. It would be as if UEFA and the African Federation combined to compete for one trophy -- champion of both Europe and Africa? Or Asia and Africa combining for one trophy--not sure FIFA would recognize such a trophy.
CONMEBOL's equivalent to the Euros is the Copa America--the problem with it is that it is every 2-3 years, instead of 4, which dilutes the importance of the trophy.
Bobby, what's your take on the criticisms that are being leveled on coaches such as MVB and Donadoni? It's predictable that Arragones or Loew will also be condemned by media and bloggers.
I think all of these men seem to have done a good job, but I'm not a soccer analyst. Whether a team is outplayed or outcoached, do we always have to point fingers at the coaches? Surely as Bobby suggests, we should pay attention and offer praise to the winners, when praise is due. One man's or team's success doesn't necessarily equate to another's failure.
Hey Bobby, we're missing the Tartan Army at these major tourneys. Start checking the census rolls to see if there are any Scots with Brazilian grandmothers.
I was watching the FSR yesterday and I heard Derek say that there was 9 minutes of added time in a qualifying game in Asia. Shouldn't FIFA have a rule that allows referees to give a certain amount of stoppage time? A sort of limit that shouldn't be broken?
danielgregg
Expanding Copa America to include all the America's and making the tournament every four years is exactly what I would like to see!
ConCaCaf is good enough now to play against Conmebol. I think if we combined our regions at least 2 of the 8 qualifiers would be Concacaf. With todays ability to fly combining the regions would inprove soccer in all of the America's. It would be great!
It is broke, Baseball Basketball Hockey Autoracing Wrestling and American football even the CFL can pay their athletes more than pro-soccer can in North America but none of those sports can get more kids out to play the game like soccer can.
Conmebol is like all organizations, if they wish to get richer they must expand or get better. If they don't they will continue to lose their players to Europe, Asia and maybe one day USA. They can lead the revolution or they can watch it pass them by.
"Scared of the competition"??? WHAT competition? Barbados? Honduras? Trinidad??? St. Vincents? Guatemala? What are you smoking???
Mexico, the US and maybe Canada....ok, I can see them trying to qualify for the Copa America and maybe qualifying (tho I'm not sure about Canada qualifying very easily, and a US team used to playing all their qualifying games at home against teams like Barbados might struggle) but the rest of CONCACAF???
Sorry, but even weak teams like Bolivia and Venezuela would make fodder of the Caribbean and Central American countries.
Bobby, off topic, but let's say the USMNT needed a new coach (I think you'll agree that they do)...who should they try to get? Of course this begs the question of who would actually want to coach the USMNT.
A few comments about Italy in this tournament. First and foremost, I put the blame on Donadoni. It looked as if none of the players were motivated. He never really had his first 11 picked out, let alone their replacements figured out... He chose to keep rotating the squad taking away confidence from players. We played with 4 full backs, didn't he learn a lesson from France? He banked on Toni as the number 9 and fell short. During yesterday game, I knew we would lose once Aquilani was replaced by Del Piero. Not that DelPiero is not a great striker, it was about that he was not holding cover in the midfield. In my opinion, that switch had some mental shift for the Italians. I feel that our coaching was not up to par.
I look forward to watching Turkey play Germany. I hope for another trick up Terim's sleeve. I know Germany are pretty much at full strength. But that what if factor must be F'ing with their heads. It really is Germany's game to lose. Turkey will just go out and play hard and I would not be surprised if one of them gets a red card and yet they still win the game. There is something to be said about the passion of their game. I hope they win!!!
I would love to watch Turkey vs Russia in the final. They ALL wear their hearts on their sleeves!
I haven't seen much heat on Van Basten for his tactics during the game. RVP played on the right flank where he has played before in this tourney, but he was always looking for the cutback and Heitinga wasn't getting forward so there was no width on the right and then by not bringing Robben in on the left there was no presence going forward on the left to stretch the field. Given the difficulties of set pieces for the Russian defense, wouldn't crosses from wide positions have likely given them problems? Of course, the Russians dominated the play and perhaps nothing changes, but it seemed like the Dutch offense was basically using 1/2-3/4 of the width of the field making the Russians defensive pressure much easier to employ. Thoughts?
So far, out of the 4 teams I hoped would stay in the tournament (France, Spain, Holland, Turkey), two have gone, two are still around.
I had a soft spot for Croatia but I love Turkey much more, fell in love with the country years ago. It's been amazing to see them manage to win their games against strong teams while so encumbered with injuries and suspensions. I love their spirit. I hope at least they give the Germans a tough time. Who knows, maybe a miracle will happen. :-)
I quit smoking (I'm to fat already!) Competition makes the game better. I figure the top six countries from COMNEBOL would be in the top eight of the combined regions. But for countries like Canada Costa-Rica B&T Honduras etc it would be a great challenge to break into the top eight. It would force the lesser lights of South America to get better or be embarrased! Countries like Jamaca and Cuba would be able to get some of the athletes off the track or the diamond to play soccer too. It is not a forgone conclusion that CONCACAF nations couldn't take 5 of the 8 spots available. As the competition grows the quality will improove and maybe FIFA will give the American Region 10 or 12 places in the world cup. Maybe TFC will be the place Canadian kids dream to play for one day. OK that is a bit much but TURKEY is in the semi finals and the GREEK's are the defending champions.
LHJS -- there is NO comparison between Turkey/Greece and the likes of Honduras, Cuba, Jamaica. Please do get real. Both Turkey and Greece would make the US, Canada and Mexico struggle, and are very capable of beating all three. In a recent friendly, Brazil could not score against Turkey, they ended up in a 0-0 draw. Turkey are a very accomplished, technical team. Fehnerbache beat Chelsea at home in the CL last season. Galatasary beat Arsenal in a PK shootout at the UEFA cup in 2000. Turkey was in third place in the 2002 wc. I don't think you understand the quality of the mid-level European teams.
Countries that didn't qualify for the Euros would thrash most of CONCACAF in the first half. The countries of CONMEBOL would get absolutely no benefit from competing against CONCACAF -- whereas CONCACAF countries would definitely benefit from competing against CONMEBOL countries.
You're claiming some mythical "improvement" in the quality of CONCACAF countries that simply doesn't exist -- we're talking about a FIFA region dominated by the quality of San Marino and the Faroe Islands. Only 3 countries in CONCACAF are beyond that.
Bobby: Toronto fans standing behind manager Mo Johnston as he refuses to simply hand over the rights to Brian McBride for Chicago's table scraps.
What would you consider a fair deal in this matter?
Trust we can count on you to thoroughly handicap the Concacaf Champions League for us once the qualifiers are set. Although feel free to weigh in on whether New England have a prayer against the might of Crafty Jack Warner's Joe Public FC.
danielgregg
There is no comparison today! And I agree outside of Mexico and the U.S. no one in CONCACAF can conpete with midtable EUROPEAN teams but that is my point. No one in the AMERICA's is improving that much any more. Yes CONCACAF would probally gain more on the field that CONMEBOL But both could gain finacially and neither will gain any thing if the status quo continues.
Anyway real life interupts so long for now...Bobby Thanks again
I would just like to say that the last Copa America had two CONCACAF teams in it. So they already have combined the two federations in a way.
As for all this nonsense of who would be fodder...Well Barbados and Bermuda and the like are all fodder for the US, Mexico, Canada, Jamaica, Costa Rica and such.
It would make both competitions much more competitive(which is the point since they are variations on the same word).
And anyone who is saying the US, Mexico and such can't compete with Brazil, Argentina or the best of Europe obviously hasn't watched the past few world cups.
It took Argentina on a wonder goal in extra time to knock out Mexico and the US drew 1-1 with the eventual world champions, while being a man down for most of the game in the last world cup.
Lets all be realistic here, it would be a lot better to see Copa America include all Americas than just the 10 SA nations plus two.
As somebody who has suffered watching Canada's national team largely embarrass itself on various stages for almost 30 years, I cannot see what would be gained by having us enter Copa America in order to get slaughtered. And, outside of the USA and Mexico, the same situation would exist with pretty much every other country in CONCACAF. You'd wind up seeing teams playing negatively and trying to kick the Messis and Kakas out of matches.
Rather than issuing invitations, though, I would like to see teams try to qualify for a Copa America tournament with eight teams. While Argentina and Brazil would always start out as favourites, every team would have quality players. That won't guarantee great football, but at least the potential will be there in every match.
Hahaha UEFA is going to try to convince the PL clubs to accept less money from the revenue sharing system.
I really can't stop laughing at that.
Their reasoning? That there is a gap growing between the rich and not so rich, mostly in domestic leagues.
Does anyone else think that none of those clubs care? I'd love to see what G&H, the Glazers, RA and whomever own Arsenal say to Galliard.
The scariest thing is that those four clubs are going to continue to get richer and are going to start pulling away from the rest of Europe, including Madrid. The only way to combat this is a European Super League...unfortunately.
AG-If you want Canada to improve they need to play teams, in a real competition, outside of Concacaf.
You don't improve by just keeping the status quo...and I don't see how you can say those teams would just play negative football and get murdered. Outside of Argentina and Brazil who else is a class apart? Its not like every "####" team would play them as they are only two of 16.
Did anyone watch Copa America last summer? It was all over Spanish-speaking television. If you didn't you missed a show as it was a damn goalfest. Mexico upset Brazil in the group stage and made it to the semifinals (and looked good I might add) before falling to Argentina. Brazil and Uruguay played an epic semifinal. It was great football and shouldn't be relegated to some afterthought in terms of world tournaments.
The US was invited and went 0-3 in the group stage, although to be fair the Americans didn't bring some of their "A" squad players. They had just beaten Mexico in the Gold Cup prior to Copa America.
We regularly play teams outside of CONCACAF and do not impress. I'm looking at this as somebody who has watched Canada play internationally since the late 1970s. In 1986, we actually beat the USA to qualify for the World Cup in Mexico. That served as a wake-up call for the United States, which overhauled its development system. Ever since then, I've watched Canada slip steadily backwards. There are several remedies for this (most involve substantial changes in the CSA), none of which involve playing in a continental tournament unless we earned our way into by qualifying. But I have a tough time believing we could manage this task based on watching the U-20 team embarrass itself at last year's world champions, where they were technically inferior and tactically witless against three middling sides (Chile, Austria and the Congo) -- a little like watching Steve McLaren's England to be honest.
While our current national side managed to see themselves past the home-and-away qualifier against St. Vincent and the Grenadines, they made very heavy work of it and the performances did not inspire much confidence. Some of the first touches were putrid -- Dwayne de Rosario scored a couple of goals but should have had four or five more. Naturally, he was praised lavishly as MOTM by the commentators rather than castigated for being technically inept. Outside of de Guzman and Hutchinson, I don't see much in the way of quality in the current bunch and I'd wager we won't make the final CONCACAF qualifying round.
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